I bought raw food...now what?

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I bought raw food...now what?

Posted : 3/14/2009 8:50:28 PM

Our grocery store was having a sale on turkey necks, chicken necks, and gizzards, so I picked up a few packages of each.

I've not fed raw before. Do I really just open up a package of turkey necks and throw one to each dog? I know that anything with a bone cannot be cooked, but should it be given frozen or just refrigerated raw? Someone suggested to me that I should grind the turkey necks up (presumably with the bones included?), but I don't think I have anything that will do that. The food is for two 70 lb dogs and one 12 lb dog.

I'm feeling a bit lost. Any tips on where to start would be great. I tried doing a search on here, but I'm getting every raw food conversation/debate instead of the "how to" part. FWIW, I'm only feeding raw (at this point) as a supplement to the dogs' normal kibble/canned diet.

brookcove

Posted : 3/14/2009 9:32:45 PM

Just give them a refrigerated turkey neck (big dogs) or chicken neck (little dog) to start out with and if that doesn't go over well, try sauting it slightly - just brown the outside a little - to make it more palatable.

One of each per day will not throw anything off - reduce your kibble by just maybe a quarter (25%) - and have great teeth cleaning effects. If you just do one every few days, don't even worry about reducing the kibble - just watch your dogs' weight and adjust if needed. Turkey necks are one of the only parts of the turkey I like and feed a lot.

24Pawsnclaws

Posted : 4/28/2009 1:03:56 AM

If you're feeding soley raw you will need to figure out the optimal balance for each of your dogs by weight and proportion. You will need to feed a balanced percentage of muscle meat, organ meat and raw meaty bones. I rotate between raw, frozen raw, grainfree canned and grainfree kibble. I mix raw things like kidneys, heart, gizzards and livers into my dog's kibble. I feed them RMB's ( turkey and chicken necks, chicken feet, lamb ribs, beef ribs, oxtails and so forth as a treat mainly about 3x /week. I feed them both thawed and frozen .... esp frozen in the summer. I don't have a particular site to refer you too but there are many good ones on raw feeding if you do a Google search or visit some of the raw feeding groups on Yahoo.